What Is A Parking Space?

I am a perfectly sound and mobile individual. I am capable of parking anywhere in a parking lot and perambulating to the building without difficulty or assistance. I still try to find a close spot. I’m sure this applies to the majority of drivers in this country. Nobody wants to walk if they don’t have to, especially during a Florida summer.

The closest spaces in the lot are outlined in baby blue with a stick figure in a wheelchair painted in the middle. These spaces are reserved for the portion of the population without my aforesaid capabilities. Now, I know this sounds like a set up for a rant on the uncouth people who park in these spaces without a permit, and while that is a sore point with most of us (but obviously not with the people who do it), that is not the subject of this piece.

No, I have another target group for this article. I have a bone to pick with the non-mobile people who have a permit, cannot find a parking space, and decide to park on the blue lines around the parking space.

There are certain places in the parking lot where parking is not permitted. The fire lane is one, the sidewalks another, and any lined areas are a third. This applies to all drivers, disabled ones included. These areas are reserved for the convenience of all drivers. They provide adequate space for rescue vehicles and visibility to those entering and leaving the lot. They do not provide room for the doors to be opened on vehicles occupying these areas without causing others drivers difficulty at the very least or damage in more extreme cases.

Now please don’t get the idea that I am unsympathetic. I am a compassionate person and believe in courtesy and respect for others. But that has to go both ways. I’m sorry for your disability and thankful for your sacrifice if you are a veteran. Truly I am. I don’t even think you should have to pay for your permit. None of us is entitled to make up our own rules though and your rights end where mine begin. I have as much right to reasonable access in the parking lot as you do.

So, to sum up, if you aren’t parked on top of a person in a wheelchair, you are not parked in an acceptable space.